Reverse engineering the word, meme splicing, morpheme replacement therapy, phonetic modifications: these are some of the techniques in play throughout Reading the Bible Backwards, the lyrical thought experiments that make up this eagerly anticipated new collection of poems by Robert Priest. By throwing the Bible and other cultural narratives on the turntable and spinning them backwards, Priest unleashes surprisingly new but strangely familiar music and meaning. Whether the movements are sideways, inverted, or omni-directional, his satire has never been sharper — or darker. Ultimately, though, Priest’s lyric voice has never been more finely tuned or elegant, especially in the wonderfully groundbreaking “I Love You Forwards” poems that afford this book its remarkable balance.

Robert Priest is known as a poet for both adults and children and has been published widely and internationally. He is also a performing musician, a songwriter and playwright (creator of the well-loved children’s play Knights of the Endless Day) and leads literacy workshops in schools. He has released numerous recordings for children with the musical group The Teds and a spoken word CD. Robert Priest lives in Toronto, Ontario.

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